A survey of teachers questioning stategies in speaking classes a study at nguyen binh khiem high school in an giang province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES NGUYEN THI THANH GIANG A SURVEY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING CLASSES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

NGUYEN THI THANH GIANG

A SURVEY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING CLASSES

A STUDY AT NGUYEN BINH KHIEM HIGH

SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE

SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE

M.A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, December 2007

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

A SURVEY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING CLASSES - A STUDY AT NGUYEN BINH KHIEM HIGH

SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE

in terms of the statement of Requirements for theses

in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree

or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, December 10th , 2007

NGUYEN THI THANH GIANG

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Thi Thanh Giang, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research,

in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, December 10th , 2007

NGUYEN THI THANH GIANG

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, for all of her patient guidance, continuing encouragement and keen revision of this thesis Without her great help, this thesis would have never been finished

I would like to express my gratitude to all of my teachers of TESOL 2004 at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCM City, for their interesting lectures and whole-hearted guidance from which I greatly benefited in my writing this thesis

I would also like to thank the English staff at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in

An Giang Province for their help with the data collection for the study; all of the students participating in the study for their enthusiastic cooperation; and all of my friends and colleagues for their precious advice, support and encouragement

Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love and support in completing this work

ABSTRACT

Questioning strategies in teacher talk are very essential in the process of teaching and learning English, especially the teaching and learning of speaking skill at high schools This study investigated how teachers’ questioning strategies were operated and their importance in teaching speaking skill for the 10th graders at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in An Giang Province

The primary data for the research were collected by means of classroom observation done in 3 speaking classes, questionnaires for 156 students and 8 teachers

at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School and a quasi-experiment The results of these instruments help to investigate how questioning strategies were actually conducted in speaking classes and the correlation between teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill

The results of the study showed that teachers’ questioning strategies were implemented frequently in teaching speaking skill for the 10th graders However, the various techniques of questioning strategies were not fully exploited In addition, the use of translation in questioning was dominant, making it difficult for students to improve their listening and speaking skills In fact, by the means of the experimental teaching together with the Pre-test and Post-test, students’ improvement on speaking skill was obviously noticed thanks to the teacher’s exploitation of questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill

The study also includes practical recommendations to make best use of teachers’ questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill for the tenth graders

TABLE OF CONTENTS page

Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of tables ix

List of figures xi

List of abbreviations xii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 The problem 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Limitation and delimitation 3

4 Methodology 4

5 Overview of the study 4

Chapter 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 6

1.1 Description of Nguyen Binh Khiem High School 6

1.2 Description of English syllabus for the tenth graders 7

1.2.1 The textbook 8

1.2.2 The syllabus of speaking lessons in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 8

1.3 The negative factors having effects on teaching and learning speaking skill in the 10th grade and the significance of the study 10

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 13

2.1 Teacher Talk 13

2.1.1 Amount of teacher talk 14

2.1.2 Modifications to teacher speech 16

2.1.3 Elicitation 18

2.1.3.1 Definition of elicitation 18

2.1.3.2 Elicitation techniques 18

2.1.3.3 Teachers’ Questions 19

2.2 Speaking Skill 29

2.2.1 The role of speaking in the four language skills 29

2.2.2 Communicative competence 30

2.3 The correlation between questioning strategies and speaking proficiency 32 2.4 Teacher roles in Communicative Approach 33

2.5 Code switching 36

2.6 Summary 38

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Research questions 40

3.2 Research design 41

3.2.1 The subjects 41

3.2.2 Instruments 42

3.2.2.1 Questionnaires 43

3.2.2.2 Classroom observation 44

3.2.2.3 Quasi-experiment 46

Chapter IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 53

4.1 Data analysis 53

4.1.1 The questionnaires 54

4.1.1.1 Students’ responses 54

4.1.1.2 Teachers’ responses 66

4.1.1.3 Comparing teachers’ and students’ questionnaires 76

4.1.2 Results from the classroom observation 83

4.1.2.1 The frequency of question types used in the sequence of the lesson 84

4.1.2.2 Teachers’ modification of questions 88

4.1.2.3 Teachers’ feedback 89

4.1.2.4 The use of code switching 90

4.1.3 Quasi-experiment 92

4.2 Findings 96

Chapter V: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 100

5.1 Pedagogical recommendations 100

5.2 Conclusions 105

5.3 Recommendations for further research 107

REFERENCES 109

APPENDICES Appendix 1: The general contents of speaking lessons in the new textbook Tieng Anh 10 112

Appendix 2: The average scores of English subject in the first semester (academic year: 2006-2007) 113

Appendix 3: Observation sheet 115

Appendix 4: Marking scheme for oral test 118

Appendix 5: List of oral topics and suggested questions for the Pre-Test 119

Appendix 6: List of oral topics and suggested questions for the Post-Test 121

Appendix 7: A sample of speaking lesson plan 123

Appendix 8: Transcripts 127

Appendix 9: Results of the Pre-test and Post-test 135

Appendix 10: Questionnaires 139

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: A taxonomy of question types 23

Table 4.1: The difference in ages of the students 55

Table 4.2: The difference in seniority of students’ studying English 55

Table 4.3: Students’ self-evaluation of their spoken and written English 56

Table 4.4: Students’ Average Mark in the first semester of the school year 2006-2007 57

Table 4.5: Frequency of students’ habit in answering teachers’ questions 58

Table 4.6: Reasons for students’ hesitation in answering teachers’ questions 59

Table 4.7: Students’ desire for the use of code switching in teachers’ questioning strategies 61

Table 4.8: Students’ preferences in teachers’ use of code switching 61

Table 4.9: Students’ reflection about teachers’ habit in using code switching 62

Table 4.10: Students’ opinions about activities frequently used by teachers to promote speaking skill 63

Table 4.11 Students’ opinion about the frequency of teachers’ questioning modification techniques 64

Table 4.12: Students’ reflection about the frequency of techniques used in giving feedback 65

Table 4.13: Personal information of the teachers 67

Table 4.14: Teachers’ evaluation on the students’ proficiency in English 67

Table 4.15: Teachers’ perception towards the importance of questioning strategies 68

Table 4.16: Reasons for using questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill 69

Table 4.17: Teachers’ awareness of the criteria for effective questioning strategies 70

Table 4.18: The frequency of activities used by teachers to elicit

students’ ideas in teaching speaking skill 71 Table 4.19: The use of questioning strategies in three stages of

a speaking lesson 72 Table 4.20: Teachers’ habit in using modification techniques

in questioning strategies 73 Table 4.21: Teachers’ habit in giving feedback 74 Table 4.22: The amount of wait time used by the teachers when asking questions 74 Table 4.23: Teachers’ habit in using code switching in questioning strategies 75 Table 4.24: Common problems with questioning strategies 76 Table 4.25: Comparison of teachers’ evaluation on students’ English proficiency and students’ scores of the first semester (academic year: 2006- 2007) 77 Table 4.26: Frequency of speaking activities 78 Table 4.27: Comparison of data in students’ and teachers’ results about

teachers’ habit of using modification techniques 80 Table 4.28: Comparison of teachers’ and students’ reflection on

teachers’ feedback 81 Table 4.29: Comparison of students’ desire, students’ and teachers’ reports about the reality of using code switching in questioning strategies 82 Table 4.30: Results from the Pre-test and Post-test of the controlled group 135 Table 4.31: Results from the Pre-test and Post-test of the experimental group 137 Table 4.32: Comparison of students’ average score of the Pre-test and Post-test 93

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Students’ average marks of English in the first semester 58 Figure 4.2: Comparison of students’ desire, students’ and teachers’ reports about the reality of using code switching in questioning strategies 83Figure 4.3: Comparison of students’ average Pre-test and Post-test

speaking scores 94Figure 4.4: Comparison of students’ scores of communication

of Pre-test and Post-test 95

INTRODUCTION

This study investigates teachers’ questioning strategies in speaking classes of grade 10 at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in An Giang Province and the correlation between teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill in these classes Hopefully, the findings of the thesis will help to improve students’ active participation

in speaking classes and enhance students’ speaking ability in the target language This introductory chapter presents the problem to the study, states the aims and provides an overview of the study

In fact, English is not only important to students at high schools but also essential for their major or higher study It provides them with a key leading to success in their future careers To achieve English communicative competence, students are supposed

to be good at the four skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing

As a matter of fact, each skill has its own importance which contributes to the learners’ competence of communication Therefore, creating opportunities to help learners develop the four skills of English is a crucial duty of any teachers However, for a long time, teachers of English were required to follow the syllabus basing on

textbooks which focused mainly on grammar structures and reading texts with difficult topics Besides, all of the exams that students had to take never tested students’ listening and speaking skills This resulted in the tendency to ignore teaching and learning speaking skill at high schools.

In order to solve the above problem, from the school year 2006-2007, the new

textbook Tieng Anh 10 has been brought into use In this textbook, each lesson includes

all four skills and is divided into 5 periods (one for each skill) The last period is for language focus consisting of pronunciation and grammar points Therefore, the new curriculum has satisfied the need of using English communicatively

However, most teachers have found that students still remain unactive in most classroom activities, especially in speaking classes Many teachers have experienced the frustration of investing much energy in their students and then getting little or no responses to their questions This situation often occurs in passive classes where students are unresponsive and reluctant to use English to answer teachers’ questions and tend to listen and take notes in silence The students’ passiveness in classroom activities prevents them from using English orally

Thus, creating an English environment for students to practice speaking in class is

an essential task for any teachers of English In order to teach speaking skill effectively, teachers need to have a combination of sub skills, techniques and strategies Up to the present time, much research has been carried out to study activities helping to improve students’ speaking skill and problems related to this skill Besides techniques and activities that are helpful for the students’ oral communication, teacher talk does have a great influence on students’ speaking skill Ellis (1994: 583) points out that teacher talk has attracted attention because of its potential effect on learners’ comprehension, which has been hypothesized to be important for L2 acquisition The issues related to teacher talk are very abundant Among them, teachers’ questions “play

a crucial role in language acquisition” (Richards and Lockhart 1994: 185) Teachers’

questions constitute a primary means of engaging learners’ attention, involving them in interaction, eliciting their linguistic output, promoting their verbal responses, and evaluating their progress Therefore, a research on the correlation between teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill is found necessary to be carried out

in order to help students improve their speaking skill

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

• to find out whether teachers realize the importance of questioning strategies

in teaching speaking skill

• to examine how questioning strategies are used in speaking classes of 10thgrade at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School

• to investigate the correlation between teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill

• to give recommendations to improve the teaching and learning of speaking skill by using effective questioning strategies

3 Limitation and delimitation

Being conducted in limited time, the study itself is only confined to the students and teachers of English at the 10th grade at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School The study will not be generalized to all students at high schools

The main purpose of the thesis is to have a look into the use of teachers’ questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill and its quality, not all aspects related

to teaching and learning speaking skill

Another limitation of this study is the self-reported nature of the data collected in the quasi-experiment The researcher was the teacher in charge of the experimental

teaching It was possible that the report on the effectiveness of teachers’ questioning strategies might not have enough objective or efficient evidence

Finally, the investigation was undertaken within the second semester of the school

year 2006-2007, when the new textbook Tieng Anh 10 was first brought into use Some

results may change in the up-coming years when experiences have been drawn and some adaptations have been implemented

4 Methodology

The study is carried out by using:

(a) Qualitative methodology to describe, explain, and investigate the real picture

of how questioning strategies were carried out in speaking classes in the hope to find out the strength and weakness of applying questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill Classroom observation was done in three classrooms to find the answers for the problems being investigated

(b) Quantitative methodology that aims at a full analysis of the descriptive data

relating to the answers to the research questions The data are collected through (1) questionnaires for 8 colleagues about their attitudes towards the importance as well as problems of using questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill, (2) questionnaires

of attitudes and habits in answering teachers’ questions of 156 tenth graders at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, and (3) a quasi-experiment was applied to two groups of participants (156 students) together with two oral tests (Pre-test and Post-test) designed

to prove the feasibility of the suggested ways and techniques in the thesis

5 Overview of the study

After the introduction of the problem, the aims, limitations and delimitations as well as methodology employed and the overview of the study, this thesis is organized

in five chapters as follows:

• Chapter I provides the background information to the study: a general

picture of Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, a description of the English syllabus for the 10th graders, negative factors having effects on their speaking skill and the significance of the study

• Chapter II is concerned with the relevant literature on the issues of using

questioning strategies in teacher talk to teach speaking skill in five major sections: (1) teacher talk; (2) speaking skill; (3) the correlation between questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill; (4) teacher roles in the Communicative Approach; and (5) code switching This chapter gives the theoretical context of the study

• Chapter III discusses the research methodology, with procedures and instruments including questionnaires administered to teachers, and students of the 10thgrade at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, classroom observation and a quasi-experiment This chapter acts as a foundation for the findings in the next chapter

• Chapter IV presents the results and findings drawn out from the data analysis

in the light of the literature review The data analysis is intended to identify (1) the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ questioning in speaking classes; (2) the reality of using questioning strategies in teacher talk in speaking classes; (3) the effectiveness of questioning strategies in teaching speaking; and (4) common problems with teachers’ questioning strategies

• Chapter V draws general conclusions and makes recommendations for teachers and students on applying questioning strategies in the teaching and learning of speaking skill at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in An Giang Province

Hopefully, this thesis brings practical benefits to the teachers and students at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in terms of using questioning strategies in the teaching and learning of speaking skill By pointing out the common obstacles related

to questioning strategies and giving useful and feasible suggestions, this study helps to make the learning and teaching of speaking skill more effective and interesting

CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This chapter provides background information crucial to understanding the reality of teaching and learning English in general and speaking skill at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in particular The first section is a description of Nguyen Binh Khiem High School The second section describes the English syllabus for the 10thgraders The last section presents the negative factors having effects on the teaching and learning of speaking skill at the 10th grade and the significance of the study

1.1 Description of Nguyen Binh Khiem High School

Situated in the Mekong Delta, An Giang Province has a third-ranked city, a town and 9 districts, each of which has at least one townlet Among the districts, Chau Thanh District, where Nguyen Binh Khiem High School is located, is the nearest district to the centre of An Giang province Located on the 91st national road, 10 kilometers from Long Xuyen City, Nguyen Binh Khiem High School is the biggest high school in Chau Thanh District In the academic year 2006-2007, the school had ten classes of grade 10, nine classes of grade 11 and nine of grade 12 All of the students of the three grades study English as an obligatory subject and they have three periods of English a week

The teaching and learning at this school is closely directed by the DOET∗ in training plans, student management and teaching methodology All the teachers of English attend seminars on teaching methodology every year This professional training aims at providing teachers with up-to-date information about new teaching methodology These seminars provide them opportunities to share ideas and together solve popular problems they encounter in their teaching In addition, during an academic year, teachers mutually observe classes in order to share teaching experience

∗

and learn from one another Besides, the teachers’ group of English at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School has a meeting held once every two weeks In these meetings, problems related to teaching and learning English are discussed and solved However, with the limited time of the meetings, problems related to administrative affairs have the priority to be solved Hence, time for sharing teaching experiences is not efficient and many problems related to teaching and learning English can not be solved profoundly

Sharing the same features as other high schools in An Giang Province, most of the classes at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School are quite big with the average number of students varying from 40 to 48 each The large number of students in one classroom makes it difficult for the teacher to organize speaking activities effectively The classrooms are large and bright but they are equipped with fixed tables and chairs which prevent students from mingling and engaging group discussion This condition limits students’ oral interaction

Thanks to its good location in the centre of the district, Nguyen Binh Khiem High School welcomes students from everywhere in Chau Thanh District including those who live very far from the townlet Therefore, the students show different attitudes towards learning English Some students are very active and enthusiastic while others are passive and shy, making it challenging for teachers to get students involved in classroom activities

1.2 Description of the English syllabus for the 10 graders

This section describes the English syllabus for the students of the 10th grade at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, concerning the aims of the syllabus and the textbook

1.2.1 The textbook

In the academic year 2006-2007, it is the first time when the new textbook of

English for grade 10 (Tieng Anh 10) has officially been brought into use at all of the

high schools This textbook meets the communicative demand of the students In

reality, there are two kinds of Tieng Anh 10 One Tieng Anh 10 (English 10-Basic) is

reserved for students who major in natural sciences and those who study the basic

programme The other one Tieng Anh 10-Nâng cao (English 10–Advanced) is reserved

for students who major in social sciences and English is one of their main subjects The topics in these two textbooks are quite similar but the language knowledge

requirements in Tieng Anh 10-Nâng cao are much higher than those in the other one

Each kind of textbooks consists of 16 units Each unit contains 5 lessons Each lesson focuses on one skill and the last one is for the language focus which includes

pronunciation and grammar points The textbook Tieng Anh 10 is more widely used than Tieng Anh 10-Nâng cao because very few students choose to major in social sciences Hence, the students who use Tieng Anh 10 are chosen to be the subjects of

this study

The new textbook Tieng Anh 10 aims at helping students (1) use English as a

communicative means at the basic level in terms of the four skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading; (2) get the basic, logical and perfect knowledge of English accordance to their level and psychological characteristics; and (3) acknowledge the cultures and customs of countries where English is spoken as the first language; be proud of Vietnamese culture and language∗

1.2.2 The syllabus of speaking lessons in the textbook Tieng Anh 10

The new English textbook Tieng Anh 10, which is theme-based designed, consists

of sixteen units and six consolidation lessons The four skills in this textbook are

∗

designed separately However, the tasks in each skill lesson are designed in the light of integration The topics for all skills are often closely related to one another Each unit

of this book consists of five lessons taught in five separated periods: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus Hence, equal attention is paid to speaking skill as the other skills The objective for speaking skill in this textbook is that by the end of the 10th grade, students will be able to ask and answer, make presentations related to the theme of the units and act out basic communicative situations such as: giving directions, expressing opinion, asking and giving information…∗ The general contents

of speaking lessons in the new English textbook Tieng Anh 10 are reflected in Table

1.1 (see Appendix 1)

As seen in Table 1.1, the contents for speaking lessons in this textbook are quite various Different activities used for speaking skill are exploited Among these

activities, questions and answers seems to be dominant The speaking activities in this

textbook will be very beneficial and potential for the students to achieve language communicative competence if they are fully exploited and students’ English backgrounds are as good as expected

However, the tests done by students from grade 6 to grade 9 focus mainly on grammar rules, vocabulary and reading comprehension, so less attention is paid to speaking skill than the others Hence, many students of the 10th grade could hardly use English fluently to express their ideas or conduct short everyday conversations at the beginning of the school year After one semester of studying speaking skill in separated lessons, students have showed a little improvement on their oral communication Though most of them could not use English communicatively as expected, they showed their own progress in using English to talk about some simple things in daily life such as: introducing oneself, talking about daily activities, talking about hobbies, etc However, the students’ reaction to teachers’ questions still shows their weaknesses

∗

Hardly can the students grasp what is being asked or answer the questions correctly Therefore, the importance of teachers’ questioning strategies in teaching speaking skill calls for a careful research

However, the lessons are usually long With the limited time, not sufficient attention is paid to speaking skill In addition, what students are asked to perform in the exams is chiefly their knowledge of grammar structures and vocabulary in separated sentence units due to testing requirements of grammar structure, reading and vocabulary Therefore, the exam scores cannot assure a degree of reliability in students’ spoken English for communication

Many students show negative attitudes towards learning English though it is one

of the basic and compulsory subjects The tendency to choose the major subjects for the entrance examination into the universities makes students lose their interest in studying English They tend to major in the subjects of natural sciences such as: mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology These subjects give them more various opportunities for their future careers

Moreover, due to the differences in students’ English learning experience, students react differently in English spoken activities Some are very active and enthusiastic whereas most of them are passive and shy Some can conduct easy conversations such as greeting, self-introduction… but most of them are unable to

produce simple utterances, even in response to some questions about their ages, families, likes and dislikes, etc When asked about obstacles related to practicing speaking English, some students revealed that they met a lot of problems with grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary They felt confused about why or when to use formal, informal or neutral styles They found it difficult to start, close and maintain a conversation Sometimes, they were unable to manage a conversation These problems can be explained by their poor communicative competence including grammatical competence and discourse competence

Consequently, teachers find it challenging to create an English speaking environment in the classroom, help students with the habit of frequently practicing speaking and find suitable methods to overcome the various problems Therefore, to help students improve their speaking proficiency, it is necessary to examine the factors affecting students’ oral communication, components underlying speaking proficiency, and specific skills or strategies used in communication and provide effective guidance Until now, a lot of research has been carried out to investigate problems related to students’ spoken communication and many suggestions have been made to help improve students’ speaking skill Teacher talk, especially teachers’ questioning strategies, also needs to be researched when studying the factors contributing to the students’ communicative competence because of its essential role in nourishing, stimulating and encouraging students’ communicative competence As what Nunan (1991: 192) remarks, teachers’ questions provide necessary stepping stones to communication Moreover, questioning is reported as one of the commonly used strategies In some classrooms, the teachers use more than half of the class time exchanging questions and answers In fact, in studies exploring the contribution of teachers’ questions in second language classrooms, questioning plays a crucial role in language acquisition They can be used to allow the learners to keep participating in the

discourse and even modify it so that the language used becomes more comprehensible and personally relevant (Richards and Lockhart 1996: 195)

From all of the reasons stated above, an investigation into the correlation between teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill will hopefully bring benefits to both teachers and students in their teaching and learning speaking skill

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

In chapter one, the background information to the study has been presented The aim of this chapter is to review prominent studies which support the research, including the following main areas: (1) Teacher talk; (2) Speaking skill; (3) The correlation between questioning strategies and students’ speaking skill; (4) Teacher’s roles in communicative approach; and (5) Code switching

2.1 Teacher talk

Nunan (1991: 189) views “teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail to implement their teaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive.” Therefore, there has been much research on teacher talk in recent years Allwright & Bailey (1991: 139) define “talk is one of the major ways that teachers convey information to learners, and

it is also one of the primary means of controlling learner behavior” Concerning to teacher talk, Chaudron (1988: 8) raises the question “If input to learners must be comprehensible, what factors make teacher talk in classroom appropriate for L2 learners?” He concludes that this area of research has generally attempted to explore the nature of classroom speech and, especially, to describe and quantify the large number of features of teacher speech that might be modified – speech rate, syntax, vocabulary, pragmatic functions and so on The issues related to teacher talk have also been discussed by different authors so far Richard & Lockhart (1996: 182) pay attention on how teachers modify their language, use questions, give feedback and language of classroom interactions, including the language that the students use when

completing activities Sharing the same point of view, Nunan (1989: 25) lists many investigated issues including the amount and types of teacher talk, speech modifications made by teachers, instructions and explanations, types and number of questions asked and error correction Meanwhile, Sinclair & Brazil (1982) investigate many issues such as: initiation, response, directing and so on, especially elicitation which receives much attention

In general, many researchers are interested in different issues of teacher talk They all pay attention to its quality and quantity

2.1.1 Amount of teacher talk

Talking about the amount and type of teacher talk, Nunan (1991: 89) concludes that “it is not surprising that in all sorts of classrooms, not only those devoted to the teaching and learning of languages, it is the teacher who does by far the most talking”

He also stresses that when teachers were asked to record and analyze one of their lessons, the amount of talking they did made them surprised most In some language classrooms, it has been shown that teachers talk for up to 89 per cent of the available time Brown (2001: 154) also states: ‘our… inclination as teachers…to talk too much!” Holland and Shortall (1998: 77) point out that in L2 classrooms, the amount of teacher talk resembles that of first language classrooms Concerning to what degree such a high proportion of teacher talking time or "linguistic exchanges’ is conducted at the expense of others, Nunan (1991: 190) explains that while excessive teacher talk is

to be avoided but understanding what is ‘excessive’ is subjective He argues that teacher talk is necessary to provide learners with what can be their only access to live target language input, something Brown (2001: 99) is wary of: “Teacher talk should not occupy the major proportion of a class hour; otherwise, you are probably not giving students enough opportunity to talk”

In addition, normative statements sometimes appear that teacher talk is “bad”, and while it can be argued that excessive teacher talk is to be avoided Determining what is

or is not ‘excessive’ will be always a matter of judgment As a matter of fact, in many language classrooms, teacher talk is important in providing learners with the only substantial live target language input they are likely to receive Thus, Nunan (1991: 192) gives some factors that we need to take into account when determining the appropriateness of the quantity of teacher talk These factors include: the point in the lesson in which talking occurs; what prompts the teacher talk: whether it is planned or spontaneous, and, if spontaneous, whether the ensuing digression is helpful or not; and the value of the talk as potentially useful input for acquisition

Hence, he concludes that whether this is a good thing or not will depend on what one believes about the role of the language input in acquisition If one believes that learners learn best by actually practicing in the target language, one will probably try to structure classroom activities so that the amount of teacher talk is increased at the expense of teacher talk If, on the other hand, one believes that teacher talk is a valuable source of comprehensible input, one will be much less worried by the teacher dominance

Moreover, in Nunan’s remarks (1989), a concern with quantity has been shifted away in the work of researchers who are interested in teacher talk As what he says, while the question of how much teacher talk is still important, more emphasis is given

to how efficiently they are able to facilitate learning and promote communicative interactions in their classroom through, for example, the kind of question they ask, the speech modifications they make when talking to learners, or the way they react to students’ errors Krashen (as cited in Cullen 1998: 179) shares the same viewpoint What he tries to prove is that since teacher talk is potentially valuable source of comprehensible input for learners, getting teachers to reduce the amount of their talk would not necessarily be in the interest of the learners He also points out that “all

attempts by trainers to root out teacher talking time phenomenon have failed” This is especially true in countries where the teacher’s role is traditionally one of the transmitters of knowledge and values, and where a preoccupation with reducing teacher talking time would be unrealistic as well as culturally inappropriate

From the reasons stated above, it is more important to judge or assess teacher talk

by its quality rather than its quantity

2.1.2 Modifications to teacher speech

According to Nunan, (1989: 25) one aspect of teacher talk which has been intensively studied is the speech modifications made by teachers A number of studies have shown that native speakers (teachers and non-teachers as well) modify their speech to non-native speakers in a number of different ways It has been suggested that these modifications make the language easier to comprehend and that this, in turn, helps the learner to acquire the target language

Gaies (as cited in Allwright & Bailey, 1991: 139) made the observation in which

he tape-recorded a group of teachers-in-training talking in two different situations: 1) with their peers, and 2) with their own students in practice teaching assignments These teachers-in-training included both native speakers and non-native speakers of English Gaies found that in classroom speech with learners the teachers modified their speech considerably

Richards & Lockhart (1996: 183) claim that repetition is one of many strategies teachers use to make their directions and instructions understandable to learners They also cite the other strategies made by Chaudron (1988) as follows:

• Speak slowly: When teachers speak to language learners in the classroom, they often use a slower rate of speech than they would use in other situations

• Using pauses: Teachers tend to pause more and to use longer pauses when teaching language learners, particularly lower-level students These pauses give

learners more time to process what the teacher has said and hence facilitate their comprehension

• Changing pronunciation: Teachers may sometimes use a clearer articulation

or a more standard style of speech, one which contains fewer reductions and contractions than they would use outside of a teaching situation For example, instead

of saying, “couldja read that line, Juan?” the teacher might more carefully enunciate

“could you…?”

• Modifying vocabulary: Teachers often replace a difficult word with what they think is a more commonly used word For example, the teacher might ask, “what

do you think the picture shows?” instead of “what do you think this picture depicts?”

However, teachers sometimes unwittingly “complicate” vocabulary instead of simplifying it For example, teachers might say, “what do you think this picture is

about?” supplying an idiomatic (but not necessarily simpler) replacement for depicts

• Modifying grammar: Language teachers often simplify the grammatical structure of sentences in the classroom For example, teachers may use fewer subordinate clauses in a classroom situation than in other contexts, or avoid using complex tenses

• Modifying discourse: Teachers may repeat themselves or answer their own questions in order to make themselves understood

To sum up, the speech that teachers use with their students is shorter, simpler, and more carefully pronounced than typical speech These kinds of modifications in teachers’ speech can lead to a special type of discourse which has been referred to as teacher talk When teachers use teacher talk, they are trying to make themselves understood as much easily as possible Effective teacher talk may provide essential support to facilitate both language comprehension and learner production

2 1 3 Elicitation

2.1.3.1 Definition of elicitation

According to Richards et al (1997: 121) elicitation refers to techniques or

procedures which a teacher uses to get learners to actively produce speech or writing The elicitation technique is a technique used to obtain information about how someone uses a particular language item The subject may be asked to describe a picture, tell a story, or finish an incomplete sentence These procedures are used to get a fuller understanding of linguistic knowledge than the study of naturally occurring speech or writing can provide This is a procedure by which teachers stimulate students to produce samples of the structure, function, or vocabulary item being taught in the classroom (Nunan, 1999: 306)

According to Wajnrub (1998: 94), there are a wide range of reasons for teachers

to elicit such as to set students thinking in a certain direction; to steer them towards a certain pre-planned topic or lesson objective; to create a context; to warm up a class;

to generate peer interaction/correction; to lead students to an activity; to draw students’ attention; to increase students’ talking time; to allow the teacher to access what is already known about a particular topic, structure or area of vocabulary; to draw out passive knowledge; and to tap into the students as learning resource and engage them

in the learning process and so forth It is also advisable that types of questions prompts, the amount of time the teacher allows, the kind of responses elicited, and the general purpose of the eliciting and any link between purpose and question type should be well considered by teachers

matching, dictation, cloze, transformation, rewriting, translation, essay, monologue

Also being interested in this field, Underhill (2001: 44) suggests more than sixty techniques and variations that can be used in language classrooms In addition, he also lists some eliciting techniques that can be appropriate for oral classes, especially oral

testing such as discussion, oral report, role play, interview, questions and answers and

so on

From the classifications of useful elicitation techniques by the researchers, it can

be concluded that questions and answers is a popular technique used in oral classes

Hence, teachers’ questions are considered as a useful device for teachers to elicit students’ answers or ideas, especially in oral classes

2.1.3.3 Teachers’ questions

The importance of teachers’ questions

One aspect of teacher talk which a lot of attention has been paid to is teachers’ questions Much of teacher talk relates to questions (Holland & Shortall, 2000: 65) and substantial research demonstrates that questions can assist learners in improving their linguistic ability (McDonough & Shaw, 1993: 271-272) Chaudron (1988: 131) warns that poor questioning practice can be counter-productive

Questioning is considered to be one of the most common techniques used by teachers This technique can be used to check students’ understanding, to give students practice, and to find out what students really think or know (Doff, 1988: 22) The importance of the teachers’ questions has also been discussed by other authors According to Sinclair & Coulthard (1975) (as cited in Wajnryb 1998: 46) questions are

of the most common type of utterances in the discourse of classrooms Furthermore, according to Gall (1984) (as cited in Richards & Lockhart, 1996: 185), in some classrooms, over half of the class time is taken up with question-and-answer

exchanges These authors also give out several reasons why questions are so commonly used in language teaching They are helpful in:

• stimulating and maintaining students’ interest

• encouraging students to think and focusing on the content of the lesson

• enabling a teacher to clarify what a student has said, elicit particular structures or vocabulary items, and check students’ understanding

• encouraging students’ participation in a lesson

The other authors, Banbrook and Skehan (1989) (as also cited in Richards & Lockhart, 1996: 185) have proposed that questions play a crucial role in language acquisition and “They can be used to allow the learner to keep participating in the discourse and even modify it so that the language used becomes more comprehensible and personally relevant.”

Types of teachers’ questions

Questions are classified by the type of response they solicit or the purpose they serve Researchers have classified questions differently According to Richards & Lockhart (1996: 186), for the purposes of examining the role of questions in the classroom, there are three kinds of questions: procedural, convergent, and divergent

• Procedural questions have to do with classroom procedures and routines, and classroom management, as opposed to the content of learning For example: Did everyone bring their homework?; Do you all understand what I want you to do? These questions are used to check that the assignment has been completed or to make the instructions clear

• Convergent questions encourage similar students’ responses, or responses which focus on a central theme These responses are often short answers, such as ‘yes’

or ‘no’ or short statements They do not usually require students to engage in level thinking in order to come up with a response but often focus on the recall of

higher-previously presented information Language teachers often ask a rapid sequence of convergent questions to help develop oral skills and vocabulary and to encourage whole-class participation before moving on to some other teaching techniques

• Divergent questions are the opposite of convergent questions They encourage diverse students’ responses which are not short answers and which require students to engage in higher-level thinking They encourage students to provide their own information rather than to recall previously presented information

However, Gebhard (1997: 71) differently classifies the questions used by teachers

by considering the purposes of the questions According to this author, there are five kinds of purposes of teachers’ questions:

• Display question: A question in which the teacher already knows the answer and wants the student to display the knowledge

• Referential question: A question in which the teacher does not know the answer

• Comprehension check: A question to find out if a student understands

• Confirmation question: A question to verify what was said

• Clarification check: A question to further define or clarify

In addition to focusing on the purpose of questions, this author also has a discussion about the content of the questions According to him, questions can include three possible content areas: procedure, study and life

• Procedure: Questions that ask students about procedural matters (“Did you

do your homework?”)

• Study of language: Questions that ask students about aspects of language

(“What is the past time of eat?” or “What does the word acculturation mean?”)

• Study of subjects: Questions that ask students about content other than the study of language (“How big is the Little Prince?” or “How many countries are there in the world?”)

• Life-general: Questions about the lives of groups of people (“Do Japanese women like hot tea in the summer? or “How do Nigerians celebrate birthdays?”)

• Life-personal: Questions about the lives of individuals (“Do you like to drink hot tea in the summer?” “How do you celebrate your birthday?”)

In the view of the importance of questioning as a teaching strategy, the skill with which teachers use questions has received a considerable amount of attention in teacher education Richards & Lockhart (1996: 187) find that teachers tend to ask more convergent than divergent questions These questions serve to facilitate the recall of information rather than to generate students’ ideas and classroom communication Since convergent require short answers, they may likewise provide limited opportunities for students to produce and practice target language They also cited a research done by Long & Sato (1983) which compared the number of “display questions” and “referential questions” in naturalistic and classroom discourse They found that in naturalistic discourse referential questions are more frequent than display questions, whereas display questions are more frequent in whole class teaching in ESL

classrooms Sharing the same point of view, Borg et al (1970) (as cited in Nunan 1991:

192) conclude that factual questions to determine whether or not students know basic information are far more frequent than higher order questions which encourage students to reflect on their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, or which require them to follow through and justify a particular line of seasoning Discussing about the frequent use of display questions and referential questions, Brock (1986) (as also cited in Nunan 1989: 30) concludes that referential questions may increase the amount of speaking learners do in the classroom after investigating the effects of referential questions on ESL classroom discourse

Therefore, combined from the classifications by different authors, the following taxonomy of question types is thought to be valuable for the aim of this research

Table 2.1 A taxonomy of question types

Closed have a short, fixed answer, for example: “What date is it today?”

Open typically require a long, less limited response, for example: “What

did you do yesterday?”

Barnes (1969) cited by Chaudron (1988:

26-7) Display those to which questioner already knows the answer and is merely

testing the respondent’s knowledge or understanding

Referential those to which questioner does not know the answer and is genuinely

seeking information

Brown (2001:

165)

Procedural relate to classroom, lesson and student control processes, for

example: “Who is absent today?”

Convergent often have short answers which “encourage similar student

responses” and require low level though processing, for example:

“Can you ski?” “Yes, I can” “No, I can”

Divergent necessitate more wide-ranging, longer responses with higher level

thought processing for example “Why is the Beatles’ music so popular in Viet Nam?”

Richards & Lockhart (1994:

186-7)

Rhetorical a forceful statement which has the form of a question but does not

expect an answer, for example: “what difference does it make?”

Richards et al

(1997: 316) Comprehension checks: “elicit assurance from the listener that a

message has been received correctly.”

Confirmation check: assume a positive and “allow the speaker to correctly interpret reactions by the listener”

Interaction

Clarification requests: similar to confirmation requests but with a more open answer

Chaudron (1988:130-1)

Instructional Any question presented in the classroom Presupposes that the

question is intended to solicit learner production

Conversational Any question asked outside the classroom

Van Lier (1988: 223) cited by Nunan (1989:30)

Modification of questions

According to Krashen (1982a: 33) (as quoted in Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991: 224), the terms “comprehensible input” and “teachers often modify their speech” have been coined on the assumption that enhances comprehensibility Chaudron (1998: 127-128) reviews and collates researches on question modification by different authors The following classification is based on the review made by Chaudron

• Repeating and phrasing

• Giving a clue to the expected answer

• Rephrasing with alternative or “or choice question”

• Wait time

However, among the above techniques used to modify the questions asked by the teacher in the language classrooms, the technique which is very frequently used but not

classified here is translation of questions into L1 Unfortunately, Bruck and Schultz

(1977) (as cited in Chaudron 1988: 172) notes: “a gradual tendency for a teacher to use her dominant language for instructional task (whether L1 or L2) will result in a similar shift in the learners’ preferences for language use”

Wait time

Wait time is another aspect of teachers’ questioning that receives much attention

of many authors Wait time is defined as the length of time the teacher waits after asking the question before calling on a student to answer it, rephrasing the question, directing the question to another student, or giving the answer (Richards & Lockhart 1996: 188) Wait time is an important factor of teacher questions because the effectiveness of questioning is said to be partly dependent on the use of wait time Teachers tend to use insufficient wait time and to either answer questions themselves

or to call on another students to answer the question Increasing wait time both before calling on a student to respond and after a student’s initial response (i.e before the teacher comments on the response) often increases the length of students’ responses, the number of questions asked by students, and students’ involvement in learning

(Richards, et al 1997: 405)

According to Gebhard (1997: 73), wait time can be considered in relation to creating opportunities for students to engage in meaningful interaction In his observation, on average, teachers wait less than one second for a student to answer a question before calling on this student again or another student In addition, teachers tend not to wait after a student gives a response, reacting very quickly with “very good!” or the like As a result, a usual pattern of classroom interaction emerges: the teacher ends up asking many questions, only students who can respond quickly do so,

and the teacher ends up reacting to the students’ responses However, if teachers wait a little longer (three to five seconds) and offer polite encouragement through non-verbal behaviors, this pattern can change For some teachers, when they extend their wait time

after asking a question, there is an increase of students’ participation Long et al (1984)

(as cited in Richards & Lockhart 1996: 188) share this point of view According to them, teachers often use very short wait time (e.g one second), which is rarely sufficient for students to be able to respond When wait time is increased to three or five seconds, the amount of students’ participation as well as the quality of that participation is often increased Nunan (1991) also cited many investigations of different authors to illustrate this issue For example, Shrum and Tech (1995) investigated French and German high school classes and came to conclusions that wait time following questions was less than two seconds Long and Crookes (1996) reported

a similar finding in an investigation of ESL, teachers in Hawaii Holley and King (1971) found that when teachers of German were trained to increase their wait time, the length and complexity of students’ responses increased

Criteria for effective questioning

Ur (1999: 103) provides some criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of

• Interest: Do students find the question interesting, challenging, stimulating?

• Availability: Can most of the members of the class try to answer it? Or the only more advanced, confident, knowledgeable?

• Extension: Does the question invite and encourage extended and/or varied answer?

• Teacher reaction: Are the learners sure that their responses will be related to with respect, that they will not be put down or ridiculed if they say something inappropriate?

Also being interested in these issues, Wilen and Clegg (1986: 23) suggest that teachers should employ the following research supported practices to foster higher students’ achievement:

• phrase clearly

• ask questions of primarily an academic nature

• allow three to five seconds of wait time after asking a question before requesting a student’s response, particularly when high-cognitive level questions are asked

• encourage students to respond in some ways to each question asked

• balance responses from volunteering and non volunteering students

• elicit a high percentage of correct responses from students and assist with incorrect responses

• probe students’ responses to have them clarify ideas, support a point of view

reinforcing and motivating behaviors (Brown 1994a, 1994b) In spite of the specific functions of each type, they all assist learners in assessing their linguistic performance Richards & Lockhart (1996: 189) distinguish two kinds of feedback: feedback on content and feedback on form Based on the conception that content feedback can serve

an effective way of eliciting more students’ responses, many studies claim that content feedback, rather than form-focused feedback, plays an important part in communicative classroom talk (Thornbury 1996: 279-289)

In addition, Nunan (1991: 185) distinguishes positive feedback from negative one

In his opinion, positive feedback has been found much more effective than negative feedback in changing students’ behavior Positive feedback has two principal functions: to let students know that they have performed correctly, and to increase motivation through praise Nunan (1991: 197) also gives a rather idiosyncratic view of the role of feedback in foreign language teaching taken by Gattegno This author argues that praise and criticism as conventionally delivered breed a dependency relationship between the teacher and learners In Gattegno’s view point, learners strive

to provide appropriate responses to earn the approval of the teacher This inhibits the development of their own internal criteria for judging the correctness or otherwise of their attempts at using the target language

Also paying attention to this field, Hendrickson (1980) (as cited by Brown 2001: 263) differentiates between local and global errors while Brown (1994: 205) distinguishes mistakes from errors The proponents in each case suggest that it is important to correct the latter type of error than the former because they greatly inhibit communication

When students make incorrect utterances, how do teachers indicate the error to the students? One common strategy is repetition of the erroneous response with a range

of modifications including altered emphasis, reduction, addition, substitution, lengthening of a segment (Chaudron, 1988: 176) or raising intonation (Nunan, 1991: